1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coupler, and more particularly to a directional coupler.
2. Description of related art
Directional couplers are used in a wide variety of applications and can satisfy almost any requirement for sampling incident and reflected microwave power conveniently and accurately with minimal disturbance to the transmission line. Directional couplers are often positioned on a printed circuit board (PCB) to help minimize disturbance between signals on the PCB.
However, a PCB often comprises a plurality of components, such as resistors, capacitors, and transistors making space on the PCB an issue for a PCB designer in order to incorporate a directional coupler onto the PCB design. FIG. 1 shows one such directional coupler including two parallel coupled lines 10 printed on a printed circuit board (PCB) 35. Each of the coupled lines 10 are elongated and made of conductive material, such as copper. The length of each of the coupled lines may be 180 mils so as to reduce space on the PCB.
What is desired, therefore, is to provide a directional coupler that will remedy the above mentioned deficiencies.